OK. Before the I-Told-You-So pundits get on my case, let me reaffirm right now, that everything I’ve said over the last few months about the Mac and OS-X have been and still are true. Now that I’ve said that, let me also confess that I’m now Mac-less, having turned in a PowerBook 12″ and bought a new Sony Z1A. What happened? I can explain it all.

I bought the Apple PowerBook 12″ minutes after the Keynote address Jan 7th. I bought it based on the address itself and on the features described for both the 12″ and the 17″. I had been wanting a new notebook for a while and Apple had hit pay dirt with this new model. The power of a G4 in the package of an iBook = a pBook and just what I wanted. I first ordered from the Apple Store online and eventually cancelled that order and picked up the pBook at CompUSA because they got their stock in before the Apple stores did.

When I got the thing home I was in love. Silver, sleek, and sturdy. Great feature-set and all around good feeling about it. Two hours later, I was sweating bullets and fighting with the Combo Drive to take my CD’s. Four days later, and the Combo Drive refused all of my CD’s and DVD’s; back to CompUSA for a replacement. They took the first one back without a complaint, as it was obvious that it was broken and it was only 4 days old. And so began life with PowerBook #2.

pBook #2 was a good machine out of the box, but developed a number of problems as time went on. The heat was always a problem. After installing an AirPort Extreme card under the battery, the battery never sat right again. A wobble developed after the first couple of weeks. The heat at one point was so extreme that it crashed OS-X, which is when I sent it into AppleCare so that they could check it out. After a week of not having the pBook – I had to resort back to my old Sony 505VE that I had kept around for a portable PC – and a number of arguments with AppleCare, they sent me back the unfixed pBook. Because I had stated the case at least six times to two different CSR’s I had come to an agreement with them: send it back again and if they can’t fix it this time, they would replace it. It took another couple of days to get the RMA label; it took six days for the old pBook to get to Apple – it was a three day label and a weekend interfered – and another six days to get the new one out to me.

In the middle of all of this non-Apple time, I spent many an hour with my Sony 505VE. True it is slow but it is tiny and cute and easy to use. With my Apple adventure, when I wanted to do something PC related, I had to jump through at least one hoop. If I needed a compiler, I had to go to Virtual PC (which runs at Pentium 2 speed) or remotely through RDC (which required a host PC.) If I wanted to show a presentation, I had to take my chances with Office.X’s ability to read my Office XP’s file which was pretty good, at best. There was always something to worry about. When I had the pBook, I didn’t mind so much, because I was using an Apple and I was loving it. It appealed to my primal Geek nature, that I had to fight with my hardware again. The keyboard felt great, build in DVD/CD drive was great to have again, and aside from melting, it was good times. Sadly, times do change.

While I was working with the 505VE, the Sony Z1A hit the market. It uses the new Intel Centrino CPU which promotes good battery life. It’s pricy – $600 more than the PowerBook – but it’s got more features. The Pentium-M runs at 1.3GHz, which places it at about Pentium 4 2.0GHz speeds, so on par with the G4 867MHz. For the $600 extra it comes with integrated 802.11b, 512MB RAM, 60GB HD, and a 14.1″ screen at 4.7 pounds. The pBook had to be upgraded to 802.11g for $100, upgraded to 384MB RAM for $80, 40GB HD, and a 12.1″ screen at 4.6 pounds. So the $600 sounds pretty worth it to me. The new Z1A has been formatting the HD for about 40 minutes – I always do a “non-Quick format the first time out of the gate – and while the left wrist rest is warm, it’s not hot. The bottom is not too hot to touch. No fan has turned on yet, so it’s mostly silent. I’ll have more on the Z1A as I use it more, but that’s not the point of this posting.

And here’s the kicker of it all, and the best sign that the world is ending: CompUSA helped me out here. I picked up pBook #3 from my mail box and went directly to CompUSA. I asked for the store manager straight away because the return policy clearly states no returns after 14 days. I explained to the store manager what had happened with all of my adventures and what I was planning: I wanted to return the pBook for store credit and buy the new Sony. I told her that I would eat the AppleCare costs and sell off all of my peripherals on eBay, but they had the machine I wanted in stock. She scans the box: *bOop* it’s in the system as a CompUSA product. She talks to the general manager and then the business manager. She says “Sure”. And why not? I’m spending another $600 at the store. They can resell the pBook without a hassle and they made the kickback from the sale of the AppleCare. Apple still gets $249 for a policy that will die on the vine and they can resell the two PowerBooks for refurbished models.

And I feel bad. The people at Apple have knocked themselves out for me, getting me this machine and I turned it in. Well I felt bad anyway. I just keep on reminding myself: four weeks. But, why did I do this? Frankly? I had had enough. Too many back flips to get the Apple to do PC things. Too many flipped keyboard shortcuts that messed me up on a regular basis – I never noticed them until I started writing on it and they only bothered me when I was Apple-less. Too much heat that other people have experiences and that Apple even has a Knowledge Base article to explain that it’s normal. I also discovered that I had lost my coding drive; I didn’t feel like learning a new OS any more, which negated the whole reason of the Apple in the first place. If I get The Drive back, I score another Power Mac 867MHz on eBay which is much cheaper than a notebook.

And besides the SwitchBack was Apple’s own doing; they created this problem on their own. They took the PowerBook away from me for almost four weeks and I had learned to live without it. It wasn’t directly their fault – I mean if they had fixed the pBook the first time I sent it in, it would have only been a week or less and not the four weeks it stretched out to. If they hadn’t done that to me, when Steve told me about the new Sony, I would have been a bit jealous but I would have said “I have an Apple” and left it at that. Instead, the Sony hit the market just at the right time for them to pull me back into the XP camp.

Ah well. Y’z Dock and StyleXP will help me over my depressed move back to XP… at least I know I won’t burn myself anymore!

The worst part about it is that I have to pull down my “Created with a Mac OS” image!